if only it was an artifact creature. Although I still see use with this in a deck centered around Venser, the Sojourner. But even then this doesn't have much use.
Gavrilo
★☆☆☆☆ (1.0/5.0)(3 votes)
Well, maybe you'll hammer all opposing critters with spot removal and/or bounce... oh wait, it draws a card, not that many cards. Forget it, that's crap.
Shiizu
★☆☆☆☆ (1.8/5.0)(3 votes)
Ophidian with shroud and 2 power is not bad. Sadly, you really need to be entirely unopposed for this guy to be good.
Shorud on a creature that you would want to target with Distortion Strike and the like? 2/1 on a creature that is meant to deal damage to a player, why not 1/2 or hell even 1/3?
This is a cruel joke. This is the kind of stuff Evil Mark Rosewater told us about. It's practically a 2/1 with Shroud for 3 mana and nothing more. The whole Ophidian effect will almost never come into play and you'll just be frustrated with not being able to use it. Bad card, bad design. How did R&D approve this?
Nighthawk42
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.7/5.0)(3 votes)
Built in Shroud would be great against the large number of decks that are low on creatures themselves...if we didn't have quite so many spells which do damage to all creatures or make a player sacrifice a creature.
For the same mana cost you can have Jace Beleren let alone his broken incarnation for 1 more.
SolidSoldier
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.8/5.0)(4 votes)
Ugh, it needed to have SOME sort of evasion for this to be worth it. Even if it was one more {U} with evasion, it would have been worth it, but noooooo. I suppose there had to be some terrible filler cards in this set.
Seriously, less toughness, no merfolk tribal, and shroud, why?
Richard_Hawk
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.7/5.0)(3 votes)
shroud is useful on a creature thats actually good, but this............
flanker7
★★★★☆ (4.7/5.0)(3 votes)
I like the Art, kin'a wonder what the wold would look like with that suit on.
Smauls
★★★★☆ (4.7/5.0)(3 votes)
In my first ever booster draft, I drafted three of these. Not once did an attack with one actually land. Instead, they remained untargetable blockers. Luckily I also drafted Grand Architect so these guys stuck around for a while.
rzal
★☆☆☆☆ (1.5/5.0)(1 vote)
"Whispersilk Cloak still works." - BloodDragon It has Shroud though, so you can't equip it... there's basically no way to give this thing evasion unless it's a global effect..
madmonty
★☆☆☆☆ (1.1/5.0)(8 votes)
@blooddragon no, whispersilk does not work because equipping targets it. This card really just sucks...
Chazilla
★☆☆☆☆ (1.5/5.0)(8 votes)
I know it has been hinted at, but shroud just ruins this card. Gimme a Scroll Thief, any day.
Daedalus6174
★★★★☆ (4.6/5.0)(5 votes)
Why is this card rated so poorly? It's somewhat mediocre, but it's not 2.5/5 terrible. Shroud is good. Drawing cards is good.
SeiberTross
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(7 votes)
People are missing the point here, because they're too used to playing scroll thief, Ophidian or other similar cards.
Its a shrouded 3 cost creature that deals 2 damage and draws a card. Ye-gods, that is awesome.
Look here for a standard burn deck suggestion built around this guy that wins against most standard decks. http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/boab/135
As the magic article suggested, play it in a deck that makes it really difficult for people to keep creatures on the field, and this card turns into one of the most annoying creatures in standard.
Namely, this card LOVES AEther Adept. This card LOVES bounce/control. This card LOVES burn/destroy.
A fantastic card when you own the field. Often your opponents can't get rid of it. 4/5 for keeping that burn coming.
Dark_c
★☆☆☆☆ (1.2/5.0)(2 votes)
Play it for what it is and not for what you'd like it to be, it's a fine card by no means a 5 but surely not a 2,5 (design-wise a 1/3 or a 1/4 with no shroud would be interesting)
Tyrannopope
★☆☆☆☆ (1.1/5.0)(7 votes)
Goblin Tunneler, lots of fun blue + goblin infiltration decks
Azrael1911
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(3 votes)
If it's good enough for Jacobis and his 2nd place deck at star city, it's good enough for you too.
DacenOctavio
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(14 votes)
"If you can dodge a Tumble Magnet, you can dodge a ball!"
-- Patches O'Houlihan
blindthrall
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.8/5.0)(3 votes)
@BloodDragon How? Equip targets. No wonder the Mirrans got hosed. The problem with this card is that the card draw will never happen. If it lost the ability and cost {U}{U}, I'd love it.
Kryplixx
★★★★☆ (4.7/5.0)(3 votes)
Love the art. Pretty blue.
Manspider
★★★★☆ (4.7/5.0)(5 votes)
I AM INTERFACED
MrBarrelRoll
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(10 votes)
"Because of the shroud you can't give it any sort of evasion or protection."
Shroud isn't already protection?
TheSwarm
★★★★☆ (4.8/5.0)(6 votes)
This is really dumb. I cant believe the criticism people are giving this card. It has shroud so can't be given evasion? Thats ridiculous! You know what would work better than evasion? How about removal. Let us examine a card like distortion strike versus a similar card, staggershock. Distortion strike gives the thing plus one and unblockable. He swings. Then you get bashed. Same thing happens next turn. With staggershock, you kill there dude. Then you swing. Use cheap efficient removal, not cheap uninteractive evasion spells.. an distortion strike only clears the way for one creature, whereas arc trail and lighting bolt and unsummon and disperse and go for the throast and doom blade and tumble magnet and the like can clear the field for multiple creatures. And you know whats great about this card, that makes it a super pain in the neck? Shroud! The thing you all are complaining about makes it more durable than ophidian or scroll thief! Its A great card. Dont underestimate it.
SarpNasty
★★★★☆ (4.8/5.0)(8 votes)
The comments on this card show one thing: In the world of Jace 2.0's, Titans, and Baneslayers, the current Magic player wants cards that do all of the work for them. If this were a 2/3 or had Hexproof instead of Shroud, it would be a rare, and it would be another card that is too overpowered.
Instead, Wizards printed this card. It forces players to actually build a deck that takes takes advantages of it's abilities. That is the beauty of this game; figuring out a way to utilize a useful ability. All of this "the shroud keeps me from giving it evasion" nonsense just proves that you are too narrow-minded and lack the creativity to make decks. Instead, next time you see a card (especially an uncommon) that has a "debilitating" ability, try and figure out a way to use it to your advantage.
rant over.
kanguilla
★☆☆☆☆ (1.4/5.0)(5 votes)
The last card printed with shroud.
face-fister
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(5 votes)
Amen to all of you that rated this 3 or higher...I opened it from my booster and immediately thought, "this would go GREAT in my blue red." and guess what...IT DID!
NuckChorris
★★★★☆ (4.7/5.0)(3 votes)
When I first saw this I thought it made Scroll Thieflook like a chump. Scroll Thief gets bolted the turn he's put down, this survives, and very few decks can actually get rid of it. Many others commented saying Scroll Thief + Distortion Strike, can't Distortion Strike this. Well, personally I wouldn't use a card (and mana) for the purpose of gambling that my opponent doesn't have a kill spell to try to earn one more card, or if you're VERY lucky, two for the rebound. Scroll Thief isn't bad, but this I think really outclasses it. Sure, the toughness is bad, but the only way that's a problem is if your opponent has too more chumps than you can kill. Specifically, every time I have played this, it consistently gives me cards and stays on the board way longer than Scroll Thief. And I don't devote cards to giving it evasion.
iUseBreakOpen
★★★★☆ (4.7/5.0)(5 votes)
Since I never ran evasion in my Ophidian (now Augury Adept) deck anyway, this card seems absolutely amazing to me. Going to order some in the near future.
zharnotczar
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(1 vote)
I'd pay 1UU for a card and two damage. This card does it over and over again.
Mr.Fantastic.
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(1 vote)
This would have been pretty sweet for Vintage back in 2001. Pre-obsoleted by Selkie.
TheWrathofShane
★★★★☆ (4.8/5.0)(4 votes)
Run with removal.
Penguin_Master
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(3 votes)
creatures don't NEED evasion. period. at all. ever. Just build a deck that controls the battlefield. Use your imagination.
MisterAction
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(3 votes)
Yeah... I used to think this card was dumb; he can't be given evasion because of his shroud. Under threat of card advantage on contact, they'll always block him, and with 1 toughness he'll pretty much always die.
But then I read some of the comments here and decided to give him a try. Holy hell was I wrong.
You make every creature in the deck draw cards on contact. It's kind of a weird mana curve because they're all 3cmc, but you have plenty of time because you fill the rest of the deck with creature removal. It doesn't matter if you waste powerful removal on a tiny creature; if that creature was the only eligible blocker, you just draw more of it anyway. And his shroud doesn't stop him from being encoded with Hands of Binding, which is not only reusable, but also devastating in conjunction with Surrakar Spellblade; my opponents often concede after I draw six cards in one turn.
One correction, though: some of the comments here suggest going for burn. I tried that, and while effective, I recommend instead going for kill, because that allows you to include Dimir Cutpurse and Shadowmage Infiltrator, which are leagues better than most of the monoblue options.
Comments (39)
Because of the shroud you can't give it any sort of evasion or protection.
Worst Ophidian spin off ever.
Shorud on a creature that you would want to target with Distortion Strike and the like?
2/1 on a creature that is meant to deal damage to a player, why not 1/2 or hell even 1/3?
It's practically a 2/1 with Shroud for 3 mana and nothing more. The whole Ophidian effect will almost never come into play and you'll just be frustrated with not being able to use it.
Bad card, bad design. How did R&D approve this?
For the same mana cost you can have Jace Beleren let alone his broken incarnation for 1 more.
Seriously, less toughness, no merfolk tribal, and shroud, why?
It has Shroud though, so you can't equip it... there's basically no way to give this thing evasion unless it's a global effect..
Its a shrouded 3 cost creature that deals 2 damage and draws a card. Ye-gods, that is awesome.
Look here for a standard burn deck suggestion built around this guy that wins against most standard decks. http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/boab/135
As the magic article suggested, play it in a deck that makes it really difficult for people to keep creatures on the field, and this card turns into one of the most annoying creatures in standard.
Namely, this card LOVES AEther Adept. This card LOVES bounce/control. This card LOVES burn/destroy.
A fantastic card when you own the field. Often your opponents can't get rid of it. 4/5 for keeping that burn coming.
-- Patches O'Houlihan
Shroud isn't already protection?
With staggershock, you kill there dude. Then you swing. Use cheap efficient removal, not cheap uninteractive evasion spells.. an distortion strike only clears the way for one creature, whereas arc trail and lighting bolt and unsummon and disperse and go for the throast and doom blade and tumble magnet and the like can clear the field for multiple creatures. And you know whats great about this card, that makes it a super pain in the neck? Shroud! The thing you all are complaining about makes it more durable than ophidian or scroll thief! Its A great card. Dont underestimate it.
Instead, Wizards printed this card. It forces players to actually build a deck that takes takes advantages of it's abilities. That is the beauty of this game; figuring out a way to utilize a useful ability. All of this "the shroud keeps me from giving it evasion" nonsense just proves that you are too narrow-minded and lack the creativity to make decks. Instead, next time you see a card (especially an uncommon) that has a "debilitating" ability, try and figure out a way to use it to your advantage.
rant over.
But then I read some of the comments here and decided to give him a try. Holy hell was I wrong.
You make every creature in the deck draw cards on contact. It's kind of a weird mana curve because they're all 3cmc, but you have plenty of time because you fill the rest of the deck with creature removal. It doesn't matter if you waste powerful removal on a tiny creature; if that creature was the only eligible blocker, you just draw more of it anyway. And his shroud doesn't stop him from being encoded with Hands of Binding, which is not only reusable, but also devastating in conjunction with Surrakar Spellblade; my opponents often concede after I draw six cards in one turn.
One correction, though: some of the comments here suggest going